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Archived This topic has been archived. Information and links in this thread may no longer be available or relevant. If you have a question create a new topic by clicking here and select the appropriate board.
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My CN557A printer has suddenly refused to feed paper properly.  

 

If a test page is printed (with 12 sheets of paper in the paper tray) the paper feeds properly up the print head position but then gives the error message that the printer is out of paper.  

 

If a further test page is attempted (after clearing the error message) leaving the initial sheet in place the first sheet is rolled back making a jam.  

 

The printer diagnostics do not show any error and everything has been cleaned as per HP instructions. I have done the hard reset with no improvement.  Paper size and type are set correctly.

 

I wondered if it would help to do a forced firmware update but have not found a way to do this - the update program reports the firmware as up to date.

 

Please suggest what is wrong.

 

I have noticed that there is a finger sensor that is in the paper path as it approaches the full width roller adjacent to print area - what is the function of this sensor?  Could this be faulty? 

 

Also - what is the function of the green plastic strip exactly opposite this finger on the other side of the feed path ?

10 REPLIES 10
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Hi glcohen,

 

I understand you have an Officejet 6500A Plus that is not feeding the paper properly and is essentially jamming it. I will certainly do my best to assist you in this issue.

 

Thank you for advising that you have tried some steps already. Because I don't know exactly what you've tried I will recommend that you browse through this Out of Paper document and this Carriage Jam document to make sure there aren't any steps you've missed.

 

If you've tried all of that and still aren't able to get past this issue, I would recommend that you call HP Tech Support for your area and see what other options they have for you.

 

Hope this helps, have a great day!


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**MissTeriLynn**
I work on behalf of HP
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Thanks for your response.  I am not going to pay a technician because it would be cheaper to replace the printer.  However, I have investigated further and was able to completely strip down the printer.  Its now clear that the suspect paper sensor near the print head is an optical device.  Without any available data on this the only thing I could do was to confirm that there were no debris on the lenses and both elements tested electrically as functional diodes.  The green strip I asked about previously does not appear to have any function so I presume that it is a carry over from a previous paper sensor system.  It really would be of great help to know if there are any specific diagnostics for the paper sensor.  I fail to understand why there is no service manual or even a schematic available for this printer.  

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As I have had no further response from you I have investigated further.

The Optical Slot Sensor does appear to be functioning but the output from this is being ignored by the printer which still thinks there is no paper in the feed path.

Testing socket J9 (where the sensor plugs into the main board) shows that the supply to the optical emitter (red lead) is 5V and that this is switched on and off when paper feeding is to take place.  

The phototransistor output (black lead) is 3.3V when the sensor flag is not in the sensor slot and 2.4V when the flag is in the slot indicating paper in the feed path.

Even if you will not give me detailed service information can you please find out from your technical people if the voltage swing from 3.0V to 2.4V is within your specification for the output from the slot sensor.

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I can't seem to find any posting for my type of feed issue.  After reading this person's problem, I'm also wondering if it could be some sort of sensor issue.  My problem isn't that paper jams, or even doesn't feed at all, but instead there seems to be a timing issue on when the paper decides to start being pulled through.  When printing anything from a website, the header always prints at the top of the paper, most of the time, less than 1/4" fromt the top, and sometimes a footer prints at the bottom with page number, i.e., 1 of 3, 2 of 3, etc.  I can barely see bottom of characters at the tiptop of the page, meaning the header has already printed prior to the paper being pulled thru. For the most part, that doesn't bother me too much, as I seldom need that information.  However, when attempting to print labels, it is a HUGE problem because the labels are ALL off, and all UNUSABLE because they start higher than they should be on the paper.  I'm a retired administrative assistant, so believe me, I know what I'm doing and how to set up labels on Word, and choose the right label type (Avery 8160 etc) before printing as well. That's NOT the problem.  Can you tell me what's causing this, and how I can fix it? I've done a printer alignment test and all is fine on the page as far as I can tell.  HELP! 

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6500a plus begins printing before page is fed, loosing about 1/2" of printed page. Occurs in MS Word in portrait mode, and MS Excel in Landscape mode, and when printing the 6500a Plus diagnostic Report in portrait mode.

Suspect a sensor problem, or ?

 

Downloaded, installed HP Print/Scan Doctor, which updated the printer's software, found/fixed no problems...

Printer is about 3 years old.

Is three years the new average lifespan for HPOfficejet all-in-one printers?

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Did anyone ever find the underlying problem?   My printer just now started doing the same thing - it starts printing before the paper is feeding in... or maybe it does start printing at the same time, but the paper isn't feeding in properly at first.   In any event, the symptom is that about the first 2 inches are all printed on top of each other at the top of the page.

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I've done everything that is shown on HP Website  at least three times and my printer will still not feed paper.

Some of the rollers are stained from ink but they are clean

 

My problem seemed to happen when I was just about out of ink.  I wouldn't think that this contributed to the probelm  or not.   But I preformed all of the above operations before install the new ink.  Then I installed all new genuine HP Cartridges and did them again and it still does not work. 

 

HP has to find a fix for this problem, there are too many printers with the same problem. 

 

I'm really pieved that I spent all that money on 4 new cartridges and now they want me to send it in for repair.  God only knows what that will cost since it's out of warrantee.  

 

Being a Senior my SS does not go very far. 

 

 

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I have been having the same problem with my printer as "actress." Has anyone found a solution? Why the paper feed seems to be about 1/2 inch (or more) behind the printing (printing too close to the top edge and leaving too much space at the bottom of the page). As noted, this makes printing labels almost impossible! 😞

 

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paper feeds too late and cuts off top of sheet (left side in landscape) when printing from computer; very annoying and cannot print things like labels, which I need to do.  This problem started about a month ago. 

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